UPDATE: Diary edited to delete reference to the Black Agenda Report as I have been apprised of some unfortunate associations there which I cannot support. The message of the diary remains the same.
As a more-or-less lifelong Democrat, I have been increasingly disturbed over the years by the ongoing revelations of Democratic complicity in some exceedingly foul deeds, including the most shameful war of modern times and the greatest heist in all of human history.
They're saying the tab for the unnecessary, immoral and unjustifiable Iraq war is going to come in at up to 6 Trillion when all the interest, etc is added up. All-in-all a pretty huge and horrible ripoff no matter how you tote it all up. And that's just the dollars. No one's talking about the lives lost and mangled or the damage done. No one seems concerned about the dead, the crippled or the bereaved, or that we've made so many more people hate us.
It wasn't just Republicans who did this. And don't look now but they're doing it again.
Why did the so-called Democratic leadership take impeachment off the table for GW Bush? Because they were in it up to their eyeballs. Torture, phony war, profiteering, thievery, corruption - and lying about it all every time they opened their mouths. It was one big happy gang of pirates in Washington, D.C. And they've only gotten bigger and happier since the days of W.
You have to really strain to find any heroes anywhere in our system of government. Off the top of my head, there are Bernie Sanders (not a Democrat), Barbara Lee (for her opposition to the AUMF), Alan Grayson (who at least says the right things) and Elizabeth Warren who hasn't been in the Senate long enough (I fear) for the virus that infests those halls to take effect – not that I wish it on her, Jeff Merkley and perhaps a few others. I had high hopes for Al Franken, but he has disappointed more than anything else. Not sure I'm ready to condemn him. He still shows promise by making the occasional worthwhile effort, but his bright shining light is more of a distant glimmer these days.
We have mega-assholes on the Supreme Court, a House full or traitors and thieves and a Senate club for duplicitous douchebags where you get to go in our system if you are sufficiently awful - and sufficiently subservient to the 1%.
We point the finger at Republicans and rightfully so, but that's also a good dodge for Democrats. Those other guys are so much worse. Those mean old Republicans. That's why we can't have universal health care, free education, living wages, science-compliant policy or peace in the world. It's all their fault. This, as they rake in the dough and retire to their corporate consultancies or fat cat lobbyist jobs for having sold out their fellow Americans.
There are plenty who sign their names to happy crap lacking all sincerity. Support my Save the Starving Puppies initiative, send your checks to ME in Washington Dee Cee. In the mean time, if you steal a couple of billion dollars from the American people patsies, our entire government will avert its eyes, but if you truck with the rebels or tell the damned truth, you will be crushed.
Aaron Swartz
Bradley Manning
Julian Assange
John Kiriakou
The only actual patriots on the horizon are shackled and chained...or dead.
So what's the solution? I'm not sure I know, but we'll never come up with one until more of us agree about the problem. This post is a modest effort in that direction. We all need to speak up and raise hell. Silence is complicity.
Politicians of both parties are doing their damnedest to show us that we've all been had. We should pay attention.